The Six Steps of Healing
by Susun S. Weed

Examples are in parenthesis: (with a few of the modalities available at each step)

Step 0: Do Nothing
(sleep, meditate, unplug the clock or the telephone)

Step 1: Collect Information
(low-tech diagnosis, books, support groups, divination)

Step 2: Engage the Energy
(prayer, homeopathy, ceremony, affirmations, laughter)

Step 3: Nourish and Tonify
(herbal infusions and vinegars, hugs, exercise, food choices, gentle massage, yoga stretches)

Note: Healing with Steps 4, 5, and 6 always causes some harm :

Step 4: Stimulate/Sedate
(hot or cold water, many herbal tinctures, acupuncture)

For every stimulation/sedation, there is an opposite sedation/stimulation, sooner or later. Addiction is possible if this step is overused.

Step 5a: Use Supplements
(synthesized or concentrated vitamins, minerals, and food substances such as nutritional yeast, blue-green algae, bran)

These substances may do as much harm as good.

Step 5b: Use Drugs
(chemotherapy, tamoxifen, hormones, high dilution homeopathics, and potentially toxic herbs)

Step 6: Break and Enter
(threatening language, surgery, colonics, radiation therapies, psychoactive drugs, invasive diagnostic tests such as mammograms and C-T scans)

Side effects, including death, are inevitable.

Legal Disclaimer: This content is not intended to replace conventional medical treatment. Any suggestions made and all herbs listed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, condition or symptom. Personal directions and use should be provided by a clinical herbalist or other qualified healthcare practitioner with a specific formula for you. All material on this website/email is provided for general information purposes only and should not be considered medical advice or consultation. Contact a reputable healthcare practitioner if you are in need of medical care. Exercise self-empowerment by seeking a second opinion.

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com

For permission to reprint this article, contact us at: susunweed@herbshealing.com

Susun S. Weed is the author of four highly-acclaimed books on herbs and women's health: Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year, Healing Wise, New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way and Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way. Ms. Weed lectures world-wide on women's health and herbal medicine. From her home in New York State's Catskill Mountains, she directs the activities of the Wise Woman Center, acts as editor-in-chief of Ash Tree Publishing, personally oversees the work of 400 correspondence students, and trains herbal and shamanic apprentices. Susun has lived the simple life for nearly 40 years as an herbalist, goatkeeper, homesteader, and feminist. She has been called "a true radical - deeply rooted," "a modern pioneer," and "one of the founding mothers of herbal medicine in the United States†.